Serial Murders

News about Serial Murders, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

May. 12, 2015

Police find remains of four people behind strip mall in New Britain, Conn, same area where partial skeletons of three women were found in 2007; authorities suspect spot is dumping ground for person suspected as serial killer. MORE

Mar. 1, 2015

Shirin Gul, most notorious serial killer in Afghanistan who is imprisoned in Jalalabad, claims idea for killing 27 men was her lover's; life story of Gul, who is in her 12th year of a 20-year sentence, is rife with accounts of abuse by men, often at hands of family members and others closest to her. MORE

Dec. 30, 2014

Timothy J Dowd, police detective who led New York City manhunt that culminated in capture of serial killer David Berkowitz in 1977, dies at age 99; Berkowitz, who called himself Son of Sam, ultimately killed six people and wounded seven others before being apprehended. MORE

Oct. 21, 2014

Police in Gary, Ind, say convicted sex offender Darren Vann has admitted to killing at least seven women, including one found strangled at a motel; only one of women had been reported missing, and most of the bodies were found in abandoned houses. MORE

Oct. 6, 2014

Serial killer Dennis L Rader says in letter from prison that he is cooperating with book about 10 people he killed in the Wichita, Kan, area; says his intention is to help victims' families monetarily and to advance understanding of criminal mind for investigators and criminologists. MORE

Aug. 27, 2014

Authorities in Los Angeles say Alexander Hernandez is a serial killer who shot seven people, leaving four dead over five days; says three other victims were critically wounded and that two dogs were also shot and killed before his arrest. MORE

Apr. 29, 2014

Arrest of Pakistani paramedic Muhammad Ejaz, confessed serial killer, has caused alarm among gay men and lesbians in the country; Ejaz is under arrest on suspicion of killing men he had met on Manjam, social networking website for gay men; social media has been quietly used to widen freedoms in the country, where homosexuality is illegal. MORE

Apr. 4, 2014

Tommy Lynn Sells, man who claimed to have killed as many as 70 people, is executed in Texas after Supreme Court rejects his lawyers’ demand that state release information about where it gets its lethal injection drug. MORE

Jul. 20, 2013

Boston law enforcement officials announce remains of Albert DeSalvo match DNA profile of seminal fluid found at last of crime scenes attributed to the Boston Strangler; convicted rapist DeSalvo confessed to strangler murders but was killed in prison and never prosecuted for them. MORE

Jul. 13, 2013

Remains of Albert DeSalvo, man suspected of being the Boston Strangler, are exhumed so a medical examiner may take tissue or bone samples; investigators seek to tie DeSalvo to 1964 death of Mary Sullivan, possibly the Strangler's last victim. MORE

Jul. 12, 2013

Boston police say DNA found at the home of the woman thought to be the final victim of the notorious Boston Strangler has been matched to Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to the crimes but was never tried; Mary Sullivan, last of the victims, was found raped and murdered in January 1964. MORE

Jan. 13, 2013

Op-Ed article by author Sheila Weller highlights virtues of pursuing so-called cold cases, such as murder case against serial murderer Rodney Alcala, who murdered her cousin Ellen Hover in 1977, despite fact that he was also sentenced to life in prison for another murder. MORE

Dec. 18, 2012

Report issued by Canadian inquiry into 49 murders committed by Robert W Pickton in Vancouver in 1990s finds that Pickton was able to continue his killing spree largely because of systemic bias by police against victims, many of whom were women from aboriginal groups. MORE

Dec. 8, 2012

Law enforcement investigators are trying desperately to trace murderous path left by Israel Keyes, admitted killer in Anchorage who took his own life in jail after giving them partial details about rapes, serial murders, arson attacks and bank robberies he committed; police are appealing to public across the country for help in solving his crimes. MORE

Nov. 23, 2012

Salvatore Perrone, who was ordered held without bail in the killings of Brooklyn shopkeepers, is described by his neighbors as a man prone to both combativeness and exuberance; state of his home on Staten Island also speaks to his financial distress. MORE

Nov. 22, 2012

Salvatore Perrone of Staten Island is arrested and charged on counts of first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of three Brooklyn shopkeepers; New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W Kelly describes Perrone as a serial killer, saying department had indications that Perrone was intent on finding additional victims. MORE

Nov. 19, 2012

Authorities are searching for possible serial killer who fatally shot three Brooklyn shopkeepers in recent months; all victims, including the latest Vahidipour Rahmatollah, were of Middle Eastern origin, over 50 and often worked by themselves. MORE

Feb. 19, 2012

Authorities in Suffolk County, Long Island, report the discovery of more skeletal remains in a wooded area of Manorville, where the remains of 10 people have been found since 2010; unanswered question is whether the latest find represents an isolated death or is another clue in a continuing Long Island serial-killer case. MORE

Feb. 18, 2012

Authorities in Linden, Calif, have dug up more than 1,000 bones from victims of Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine, two men known as the 'speed freak killers', who terrorized the area during the 1980s and 90s. MORE

Jan. 18, 2012

Orange County, Calif, prosecutors say Itzcoatl Ocampo, Iraq war veteran accused of killing four homeless men, stalked his victims before striking; he is charged with four counts of murder. MORE

Jan. 15, 2012

Police in Orange County, Calif, arrest Itzcoatl Ocampo in connection with the serial killings of four homeless men over the last month. MORE

Jan. 8, 2012

Nicholas Schmidle article describes how gruesome discovery of a woman's hacked remains in Brooklyn in 1990 led to the 16-year hunt for the trans-Atlantic serial killer Smajo Dzurlic, who was ultimately convicted in June 2010. MORE

Jan. 6, 2012

Homeless people in Orange County, Calif, have been running to shelters in search of a safe place after the separate stabbing deaths of three homeless men; authorities believe there is a serial killer stalking the homeless based on similarities in the three killings. MORE

Dec. 16, 2011

Suffolk County officials disagree over whether single serial killer or multiple killers are responsible for deaths of 10 people whose bodies have been found along seaside parkway on Long Island. MORE

Dec. 14, 2011

Law enforcement officials say they discovered what they believe are the 'skeletal remains' of Shannan Gilbert just hours before a vigil was to be held for 10 people whose remains had been found on Jones Beach Island; on Dec 13, 2010, officials reported the discovery of four bodies in the brush on Jones Beach Island. MORE

Dec. 1, 2011

Jury sentences Mark Goudeau to death for killing nine people during a killing spree in which he terrorized the Phoenix area. MORE

Oct. 28, 2011

Cook County, Ill, sheriff's office is hopeful that an effort to use DNA matching will help identify the unidentified victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. MORE